This invention relates broadly to baked, ready-to-eat flour containing products, such as those typically sold as packaged bakery products. Amongst the types of products which can be prepared in accordance with this invention are crumb-structured products such as cakes, dumplings, breads, bagels, refrigerated biscuits, quick breads, and the like. These products are all characterized in that they normally contain in the final baked good, nearly all gelatinized starch. In addition, the technology of this invention can be used to prepare brownies and cookies which are of higher sugar and lower water content than those previously described as crumb-structured, and are further characterized in that they are usually not as high in gelatinized starches.
One of the problems with preparing products of the type discussed above for pre-packaged shipment and sale, is that such products have a very short shelf life. This is a distinct disadvantage if one intends such products to compete with fresh bakery goods.
Products which have been previously baked and prepackaged and shipped for sale must, if they intend to compete with fresh-baked goods, mantain their fresh-baked characteristics. These characteristics include moistness, eating quality, tenderness, good taste and flavor, and generally all of those characteristics of high quality fresh-baked goods.
Providing such pre-baked and packaged products which are shelf stable to normal deterioration of these beforementioned desirable attributes, is not an easy task. It is known that "staling" occurs within a short period of time for fresh-baked goods. Thus, those prepared at a bakery for immediate sale have a very short shelf life, typically, a day or two, up to at most one week. Packaging can extent that shelf life somewhat, but again such products inevitably will stale in a short time if current technology is practiced. Such staling will typically occur within a week or two, at most.
"Staling", as used herein, refers to a phenomenon which involves many different physical and chemical factors. Amongst those are texture staling caused by recrystallization of the gelatinized starches, moisture drying, chemical changes causing flavor changes, and microbiological spoilage. Of particular importance here in the overall staling phenomenon is recrystallization of the starches.
As is known, during baking most of the starches of the type used in crumb-structured products, become gelatinized. That is to say, the starch swells, takes on water, the starch cell bursts and it loses its granule structure. However, over a period of time, the starch begins to recrystallize in areas and assume a rigid structure, and some of the water in the starch migrates to the protein portion of the baked goods. This makes the product tougher, makes the crumb structure more rigid and gives the consumer the impression of a dried-out product, even though the moisture content is the same. This starch molecule recrystallization or realignment during storage is one of the main problems which destroys long shelf life for baked, packaged and shipped bakery products.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to prepare baked, ready-to-eat, packaged baked goods which are storage stable to provide a long shelf life, typically from one month up to as long as one year.
Another objective of the present invention is to prepare ready-to-eat baked goods of the type described, which retain high moistness, good eating quality and which in addition, contain high proportions of substantially ungelatinized starch, even in their fresh-baked condition.
Yet another object of this invention is to prepare crumb-structured baked goods containing high proportions of substantially ungelatinized starch, which have all the ready-to-eat characteristics of such equivalent fresh-baked products, which do in fact contain gelatinized starches.
Yet another object of the present invention is to prepare crumb-structured, ready-to-eat baked goods which have a high percentage of substantially ungelatinized starches, and which have a low water activity, are resistant to microbiological spoilage, and which also resist significant chemical changes during storage.
An even further object of the present invention is to prepare crumb-structured products of the type previously described, which can be upon a conventional flour base mix portion and a liquid portion, to be mixed with the base mix to form a batter or dough, with the liquid portion containing at least a 5% by weight level of a liquid edible polyhydric alcohol based upon the total weight of the cooked baked good.
A more specific objective of the present invention is to prepare products of this type described using the preferred edible liquid polyhydric alcohol, glycerine.
An even further objective is to prepare high sugar, low water products, like cookies and brownies, which also have much longer than usual shelf life.
The method and manner of accomplishing each of the above objectives, as well as others, will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention, which follows. Unless stated to the contrary, all percents as expressed herein, are % by weight.